US Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award Presentation. Prof. Foluso Ayeni with Congresswoman Angie Craig
US Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award Presentation.
Prof. Foluso Ayeni with Congresswoman Angie Craig
Agreement with Cameroon Institution to Aid Academics, Research
Anderson University entered into an agreement with the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) University in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to enhance their educational programs.
The President Board of Trustees of the ICT University, Professor Victor Mbarika Ph.D.; Vice-President, Board of Trustees, Dr. Foluso Ayeni; and Director of Quality Assurance, Dr. Irene Mbarika toured the Anderson University campus recently.
Professor Mbarika and Anderson University Provost, Dr. Ryan Neal, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will open doors for the two institutions to explore collaboration in programs of study and research, among other areas. Professor Mbarika highlighted the major areas of cooperation: mentoring, exchange of students, exchange of faculty and/or staff, professional development, and training, joint research activities and sharing of online library resources.
During the official signing of the MOU, Professor Mbarika said that Anderson University and ICT university have much in common: they are both members of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs; also, they were both built on the foundation of Christian faith and biblical teaching. That said, both teams discussed the possibility of exploring evangelical outreaches in Cameroon through education.
Interim Dean of the Anderson University College of Engineering and Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Gilbert Eyabi, himself a native of Cameroon, feels blessed to have helped initiate and facilitate the relationship between the two institutions.
“I believe the MOU between our two universities will be mutually beneficial,” said Dr. Eyabi. “A good number of the programs offered at ICT university have direct equivalencies with our programs in the College of Engineering, College of Business and Center for Cybersecurity. I can’t wait to be a part of a Study Abroad program that takes our students to ICT University in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and expose them to some of the programs they have like robotics, CISCO, nano satellites, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and renewable energy, just to name a few.”
“Anderson University’s strategic plan includes internationalization and expanding our global reach. We look for academic excellence in our global partners, but we also try to partner with universities that also share our Christian values, mission and purpose. These similarities create a strong foundation for a fruitful partnership to develop,” said Ann-Margaret J. Themistocleus, Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Anderson University. “Among numerous research and grant possibilities that this partnership will allow, we are also exploring the possibility of a summer study abroad program which would be led by Anderson University faculty in Cameroon. To support such efforts, the Center for Global Engagement and the College of Engineering will be submitting a joint grant proposal to the U.S. Department of State IDEAS program (Increase & Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students) in order to obtain funding to support international travel for students and faculty to visit ICT University for mutual exchange. The partnership with ICT University will also support additional international efforts like letters of affiliation for faculty and student’s Fulbright applications.”
Words from the outgoing and incoming STC/SLA Big Ideas Fellows
It was an honor to serve as the STC Big Ideas Fellow for 2020 – 2021. The time spent interacting with the Service Learning Academy and STEM TRAIL Center helped me grow and develop new ideas for integrating research and service learning into student experiences at UNO. Our goals for the year included identifying ways to build synergy between research and community engagement experiences at UNO, especially in STEM fields, and communicate the value of such experiences for students. We identified over 63 science courses at UNO currently including service learning components, providing a large pool of dedicated faculty who are already using community engagement to augment their teaching. Our hope for the coming year is to find ways to support faculty to incorporate research components into these service learning experiences. Another goal is to find ways to assess student outcomes from courses that incorporate both research and service learning components. Discussions with other Big Ideas Fellows highlighted opportunities to test survey instruments in new service learning/research courses in development across campus. Finally, we prepared a manuscript based on two years of data collected from a research/service learning experience at UNO, where we analyzed pre/post attitude data about the research and service learning components of the project to determine changes in student attitudes as a result of this collaboration. Our hope is that this publication will provide seed data demonstrating the value of such experiences for students both at UNO and elsewhere.
The Fellowship deepened my understanding of both the SLA and STC and the value of engaging students with both of these programs, and inspired me to continue working toward integrating research and service learning experiences in my courses. I am excited for Dr. Ayeni to bring his expertise and passion to the STC/SLA Big Ideas Fellow position, where he can provide new opportunities for both faculty and students to engage with the STC and SLA.
Dr. Foluso Ayeni; My ambitions for the time ahead:
Once again, I want to thank the STEM TRAIL Center and Service Learning Academy for this opportunity. The role of service-learning in today’s higher ed cannot be overemphasized. My plan moving forward is to increase community engagement by teaching at least three service-learning classes during the academic year; deepen the service-learning component by integrating a TOWN & GOWN speaker series in which professionals from the industry discuss, share ideas and brainstorm with Junior and Senior Students in the College of Information Science and Technology.
I also plan to conduct community engagement workshops targeted at improving enrollment, retention and graduation rates of students in the college of IS&T. The results of this workshop will shed additional light to provide a new perspective to the teaching of core computing courses.
Finally, I plan to organize a college level faculty panel discussion session targeted at discovering faculty perceptions towards service learning.
Southern students raise funds for classmates affected by fire
Eleven Southern University graduate students were left with nothing but the clothes on their back after a fire broke out at their apartment complex on Highland Road in Baton Rouge on May 6, 2017. At least five of the students were candidates in the May 12th Spring 2017 Commencement. The students were computer science majors and a part of the Indian Students Organization.
The Red Cross immediately stepped in to assist the 21 families in all that were left without a place to stay or lost belongings as a result of the Hub apartment complex fire. At Southern University, the coordinator for Student Organization and Campus Involvement Jael Gordon stepped in to help their fellow Jaguars.
“As soon as I received the email notification from Dr. Sudhir Trivedi (computer science professor) regarding the students and the unfortunate fire, I immediately began to get to work on finding ways to assist. I created a donation solicitation message requesting help and posted it in every single GroupMe thread, group text, and social media page that I had active,” said Jael Gordon. “Being an August 2016 flood victim myself who lost everything in the flood, I completely understood the urgency in which these students needed help. I also have a special affinity for our international students so I try to make it a purpose every semester to build friendly relationships with them.”
Jael Gordon said once she submitted the information to the Student Organization GroupMe, the African Student Organization decided to assist in creating a GoFundMe account for the affected students, since they are a part of the international community as well.”
“It is an important project, we are international students like them, so we feel that if we were in their shoes we wouldn’t know what to do. We took it upon ourselves to raise funds that would allow them to be able to come back to their lives. Our initial goal was to raise $1,500 but we saw people were interested in contributing and today we have $4, 515. It will go a long way,” said Foluso Ayeni, President of the African Students Organization. They raised the funds in eight days with 80 donors.
Once Jael Gordon had the African Student Organization on board she contacted Kristan Gordon, assistant to the dean, Study Aboard and Service Learning coordinator for the office of International Affairs and University Outreach, to partner in this matter.
“We appreciate her (Jael Gordon) reaching out to our office, but to see the two organizations come together makes our hearts smile, we actually handle the paperwork part, so to see them raise money for another organization, two different countries, two different nationalities come together and see them smile and laugh, and to see them hand off money makes a world of difference. We are just happy that we were all able to be a part of this process, and help make this thing bigger and beyond the fire,” said Kristan Gordon.
On Friday, May 19, 2017 the African Student Organization met with the SU Indian Student Organization to present the check from the donations to the 11 students that were affected by the fire.
“I am feeling very happy and thankful for the African Students Organization from Southern, they have taken a good initiative. They just came forward and visited our apartment when it happened. Five to six people came and stayed with us for about half an hour. By looking into our situation they responded fast and started raising funds. We are all especially thankful for them helping,” said Sharath Teja Aila, SU student affected in fire and member of the Indian Students Organization. He also thanked the International Student Center for their assistance in recovering lost documents such as visas and passports and making the process seamless.
“Our office has met with the students and helped get visas and passports together by helping find the templates that the India Embassy uses and required. We have handled it in order to make it a seamless process for them. We helped with locating apartment complexes,” Kristan Gordon.
The organization also thanks Southern University for donating and giving back some of their basic needs, like their department. Computer science professor Mohammad Abdus Salam reached out to ICNA Relief USA after hearing about the students to provide some relief as well. On May 16, ICNA Relief and Salam presented the students with new computer bags and funds to help get supplies. ICNA Relief USA strives to uplift the underserved in the US through a nationwide network of shelters, food pantries, health clinics, skill development programs, disaster relief service, refugee services, and more.
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Southern students came together to help out their fellow Jags. They started with a small amount but were overwhelmed with the response of others who wanted to help. Southern University organizations that pitched in included student athletes, Greek organization members, and alumni. Outside organizations that assisted included Louisiana State University Multicultural Affairs Office, professional athletes, other Student Affairs Professionals across the United States, and politicians.
SU Scholars’ Abstracts accepted for conference presentation
Recently, seventeen abstracts from the Southern University International Center for Information Technology and Development (SU-ICITD) researchers got accepted for presentation at the 92nd Louisiana Academy of Sciences (LAS) conference in Alexandria, Louisiana on March 10, 2018
The research team under the supervision of professors Victor Mbarika, Nicholas Omoregbe and the lead research associate and doctoral student, Foluso Ayeni. The lead authors and presenters, which include Fulbright Scholars, Post-Doctoral scholars, Graduate and Undergraduate students at Southern University, are: Dr Fakhrul Yussoff, Dr Sharon Omoregbe, Foluso Ayeni, Dr. Jarret Landor, Ruth Endam, Rufaro Chirewa, Regina Mungwe, Felicitas Aquegho, Carol Mende, Godswill Katchoua, Dr. Wuchu Cornelius, Assistant Professor Femi Ekanoye, Clovis Tillery and Britney Lea.
These researchers are presenting the following papers:
- Technology Adoption In A Historically Black College And University: An Empirical Study
- Social Media Presence of Small Business, Facebook and Others: A Case Study of Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Promoting the concepts of Internet of Things with Smarthome in North Baton Rouge: A case of Scotlandville
- From Stand Alone Computers to Big Data Technology: Developing a New Model for Information Technology Infrastructure Change Management
- Knowledge and perception of Telemedicine in Cameroon
- Imbalance of health workers in developing countries
- The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Socio-Economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa
- ICTS And The Socio-Economic Development Of The North West Region Of Cameroon
- Effects of Tobacco Smoking by Parents on High School Students in the USA
- Fintech Aspects In Money Laundering: What Can Law And It Do To Control
- Bridging the gap on financial inclusion: A Review on Mobile Money in Kenya
- Design of a Cloud Based Blood Bank Management Information System (BBMIS) for Cameroon’s Health Care System
- A Review of Cybersecurity in The United States of America
- Cyber Security in Russia: Challenges and Prospects
- Social Media Presence among Small Businesses: A Comparative Study between Baton Rouge and New Orleans
- A Mixed Methods Inquiry into the Quality of Instructional Designs and Use of Moodle Learning Management Systems: Case study of an Historically Black College and University
- A Review of Learning Techniques: Evidence from Practice Testing
The Louisiana Academy of Sciences was instituted to unite the scientists of Louisiana for the purpose of encouraging research and education in all branches of science; to encourage and conduct scientific discussions; to publish and disseminate scientific material; to conduct all enterprises deemed to promote the causes of science; to foster the applications of science to the problems of humanity and finally to encourage and assist teachers in Louisiana’s elementary and secondary schools with the caliber of instruction necessary to generate and maintain an interest in all areas of science.
By participating in these presentations, the researchers, especially the Graduate and Undergraduate students, will have an opportunity to hone their presentation skills, make connections with other scientists in their field, and become informed about study and research opportunities within the State.